{"id":982,"date":"2017-11-19T13:06:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-19T18:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=982"},"modified":"2017-11-30T11:38:36","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T16:38:36","slug":"dr-lanyon-not-your-average-man-of-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2017\/11\/19\/dr-lanyon-not-your-average-man-of-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Lanyon – Not Your Average Man of Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

One element that connects many of our texts is the explicit binary between science and the supernatural. This becomes especially apparent if one compares Robert Stevenson\u2019s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde<\/em> and Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula<\/em>. Stevenson\u2019s Dr. Lanyon \u2013 a minor characters in the narrative that still serves an immense purpose in its progression \u2013 does not believe in the supernatural. He is the voice of reason in an essentially mystical Victorian London. Dr. Jekyll \u2013 like Dr. Lanyon \u2013 is a respected and successful doctor but he chose a different path. Unlike his colleague Dr. Lanyon, he experiments with the human soul which Dr. Lanyon dismisses as \u201cunscientific balderdash\u201d (17). \u00a0In this regard Lanyon reminds me a lot of the other \u2013 often medically or otherwise scientifically \u2013 inclined male characters in our class readings. Examples include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle\u2019s Sherlock Holmes and Dracula<\/em>\u2019s Dr. Seward. While Holmes\u2019 disbelief in the supernatural is confirmed when the apparently supernatural hound in The Hound of the Baskervilles<\/em> turns out to be nothing more than an illusion, Dr. Seward and Dr. Lanyon are equally confronted with the actual presence of the supernatural in their Victorian world. Both men are medical doctors who doubt the spiritualism of some of their contemporaries \u2013 in this case mainly represented by Stoker\u2019s Van Helsing and Stevenson\u2019s Dr. Jekyll respectively. The main difference between Seward and Lanyon, however, is how these two men deal with their new knowledge of the supernatural. Dr. Seward learns about the existence of bloodthirsty vampires and without hesitation joins Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker in finding and fighting Count Dracula. In Dr. Lanyon\u2019s letter towards the end of the narrative, we are told that Lanyon is in fact the first person to observe the transformation of Mr. Hyde into Dr. Jekyll. Being present and observing this mystical transformation makes Lanyon\u2019s whole worldview collapse, his \u201clife is shaken to its roots\u201d (102). He tells Utterson that he \u201csometimes think[s] if we knew all, we should be more glad to get away\u201d (56). Accordingly, Dr. Lanyon prefers to leave a world in which the supernatural exists and suspends science and reason \u2013 the main principles that govern his life.<\/p>\n

Overall, \u2018men of science\u2019 can be found in most of our Victorian readings. Due to the established binary of science and the supernatural, these men\u2019s\u2019 principles are usually tested and pushed to their limits. Yet, the characters react to this revelation in very different ways. Dr. Seward takes action and fights the supernatural vampire, Dr. Lanyon becomes passive and resorts to silence. He chooses not to speak about what he has observed and only tells his friend Utterson about it in a letter that Utterson may read after Lanyon\u2019s death. The reason for these varying reactions to the supernatural might be found in the general setups of the two narratives. In Stoker\u2019s Dracula<\/em>, Dr. Seward plays a crucial role and can be considered one of the main characters. Stevenson\u2019s Dr. Lanyon, however, is only a minor character that has few appearances in the narrative. Accordingly, he does not become an essential part of the story\u2019s resolution like Dr. Seward in Dracula.<\/em> Generally, one can say that Stevenson\u2019s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde <\/em>does not have a resolution at all. After the confessions of Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll, the narrative ends and there is no climactic ending in which the evil supernatural being is hunted down and killed. Thus, Dr. Lanyon reacted to the supernatural in a very different way than Dr. Seward because the two men, despite their similarities, serve very different purposes in two rather differently structured narrative.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stevenson, Robert. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.\u00a0<\/em>C. Scribner’s Sons<\/span>, New York: 1886. Print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One element that connects many of our texts is the explicit binary between science and the supernatural. This becomes especially apparent if one compares Robert Stevenson\u2019s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula. Stevenson\u2019s Dr. Lanyon \u2013 a minor characters in the narrative that still serves an immense purpose … Continue reading Dr. Lanyon – Not Your Average Man of Science<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3617,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123801],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3617"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}